Last Friday we had our last More Than Mum coffee morning of term :(

It was a lovely way to start the month as usual, and a wonderful celebration before the end of term. It was a brilliant turn out once again, and an even more chilled back approach than normal... we had a magician! Thank you so much to Bev Bishop the 'accidental magician' for entertaining us all and for all the laughs you brought along with you! Thank you to everyone who came along to end the term with a bang!

Last week some of the FFS crew headed down to the Adult Learner Awards ran by SuffolkCountyCouncil, because our very own KIM TROTTER was nominated for Tutor of The Year Award... and she WON! As you know, Kim is the founder of FFS and the most integral person to the impact our projects have on women across Ipswich; she is truly deserving of this recognition! Kim was nominated by Naz and Stacey, who have both partaken in FFS ran projects over the years. Well done Kim! Also massive well done to all the other fantastic and inspiring winners and runners-up. It was an event we were privileged to be a part of and are so glad people appreciate the work we do!

Last Saturday we had an End of Term event to celebrate breaking up programmes for summer! 

This event was to showcase all the amazing talent our projects encourage, and what they've been working on the last term. We had conversational panels, performance, poetry etc! It was a lovely way to end a hugely successful year at FFS; Happy summer everyone!

On the first Friday of the month we had another successful More than Mum coffee morning! Our second to lat before the end of term, we were visited by Helen Orvis from Homestart.  Helen spoke to everyone about everything volunteering over a cup of coffee. She shared her own experiences with volunteering and how it led her to employment, and the wonderful opportunities volunteering at homestart can have for you. Thank you Helen!

We also had our lovely Naz teach us how to make adorable origami BadaBadas! Extra thank you to THE NEW WOLSEY THEATRE, who have provided us with a welcoming new space for our coffee mornings.

We had visitor Holly come to talk to the girls at #GWYA about the #iwill movement and Power of Youth day! We had a wonderful conversation about how we partake in social action, something our girls do a lot of, and what we want to change to support young people more. It was a very insightful conversation with lots of engagement from our GWYA crew!

We hosted another HAPPINESS BRUNCH at the Hive Ipswich Wednesday 24th May! 

It was a complete success, thank you to everyone who showed up! We had Imani from KMT rising come along and run a session on mindfulness which was definitely a fan favourite for todays event.  We also had Sue Farrington return for some adult crafting, and visitors from our friends at ICM.

This event was kindly sponsored and supported by eoecoop and Spider

This time for our More Than Mum coffee morninh, we were joined by HANNAH ISMAY. Hanna came along to talk to the group about the importance of cervical screening! It was a very insightful coffee morning and we all learnt a lot from Hannah as she went around chatting to everyone in smaller comfortable groups. It was a great turn out with familiar faces and new ones!  We were also joined once again by Sue who taught us some lovely origami.

This may our W2W Radio project and GWYA BOTH took over a show on BBC Suffolk! They all showed off their radio skills and embodies their girl power in a full on FFS TAKEOVER for 2 hours! Make sure you have a listen:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0fhqlbv

In early may, we had our own FFS Stage at May Day Festival! How amazing.

For the second time in a row we had our own stage to run at the festival, led by our brilliant participants. We had a line up of wonderful female performers in Ipswich, who were all so talented! The stage managers, sound techs, interviewers, photographers, stage hands etc were all part of our GWYA crew; and we're so proud of them. We also had women and girls from all our groups perform spokent word/poetry/songs etc. It was a brilliant day with lots of sunshine, bring on next year!

We have another Happiness Brunch happening on WEDNESDAY 24th MAY! We had an absolute blast at the last one back in February, and can't wait to see old and new faces this time around. 

The day will focus around keeping eachother happy and healthy, supporting the women around you. Mindfullness will be a particular focus for this one in May and there will also be some lovely adult crafts!

11am-1pm @ THE HIVE IPSWICH